Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-03-17
made of white gutta-percna.

made of white gutta-percna.
you see, they weigh SO little" he said to
me innocently, when | expressed my aston
| ishment at the fact; Il always like to look
| like gentleman"
| Well, there we sat all EARNING away in the
beautiful moonlight, and watching the Kafirs
| few yards Off sucking their Intoxicating
| ''daccha" in a pipe of which the mouth
| piece was made of the horn of an eland till
| they one by one rolled themselves up in
/ their blankets and went to sleep by the fire.
| that is, all except Umbopa who sat little
| apart q noticed he never mixed much with
the other Kairs), his chin resting on his
| hand, apparently thinking deeply.
Presently from the depths Of the bush be.
| hind us, came loud "wOof. woOfr That's
| a lion," said l, and we all started up to lis
| ten. Hardly had we done so, when from the
| pool, about hundred yards off, came the
strident trrnnpeting of an elephant 'Incu-
bu! IncubuT' elephant! elephantD whis-
pered the Kafrs; and few minutes after
| ward we saw a succession of vast shadowy
forms moving slowly from the direction of
| the water toward the bush. Up jumped
| Good, burning for slaughter, and thinking,
| perhaps, that it was as easy to kill elephant
as he had found it to shoot giraffe but |
caught him by the arm and pulled him
| down.
'Ifs no good" / said, ''let them CO."
ut seems that we are in {. paradise of
game. [ vote that we stop here day or two,
and have a go at them," said Sir Henry,
| presently.
| was rather surprised, for hitherto Sir
| Henry had always been for pushing on as
fast as possible, more especially since we
! had ascertained at L yati that about two
years ago an Englishman by the name of
| Neville had sold his wagon there, and gone
| on up the country; but L suppose his hunter
| instinct had got the better of him.
| Good jumped at the idea, for he was long
| ing to have a go at the elephants, and so, to
speak the truth, did I, for it went AGAINST my
conscience to let such a herd as that escape
without having pull at them.
''All right my hearties," said T. 81 think
we want little recreation. And now let's
turn in, for we ought to be Off by dawn, and
then perhaps we may catch them feeding,
| before they move on"
The others agreed, and we proceeded to
! make preparations. Good took off his clothes
shook them, put his eyeglass and false teeth
| into his trousers pocket, and folding them
all up neatly, placed them out of the dew
| under corner of his macintosh sheet. Sir
| Henry and / contented ourselves with
| rOugher arrangements, and were soon curled
| up in our blankets and dropping off into
dreamless sleep that rewards the traveller
Going, going. GO What was that?
Suddenly from the direction OF the water
came a sound of violent scutfiing, and next
instant there broke upon our ears a success
sion of the most awful roars. There was no
| miStaking what they came from; only a
| lion could make such a noise as that We
| all jumped and looked toward the water in
| the direction of which we saw confused
mass, yellow and black in color, staggering
and struggling toward us. We seized our
rifles, and slipping on our vedtschoons
| (ShoeS made of Unframed hide), ran out of
the scherm toward it. By this time it had
| fallen, and was rolling over and over on the
ground and by the time we reached it it
struggled no longer but was quite still.
And this was what it was. On the grass
there lay a sable antelope bull-the most
beautiful of all the African antelopes-
| quite dead, and tranStiXed by its great curved
| horns was magnificent black-maned lion,
| also dead. What had happened evidently
was this. The sable antelope had come
down ta drink at the pool where the lion-
no doubt the same we had heard-had been
lying III wall. w lille antelope WAS
drinking the lion had sprung upon him, but
was received upon the sharp curved horns
and tranSfiXed. | once saw the same thing
happen before. The lion, unable to free
himself, had torn and bitten at the back and
neck of the bull, which, maddened with fear
and pain had rushed on till it dropped dead.
AS soon as we had sufficiently examined
the dead beasts we called the Kafirs, and be-
tween us managed to drag their carcasses up
to the scherm. Then we went in and laid
down, to wake no more till dawn.
With the first light we were up and MAX
ing ready for the fray. We took with us
the three eight-5ore rifles, a good supply of
ammunition, and our large water-bottles,
filled with weak, cold tea which [ have al
ways found the best stuff to shoot on. After
swallowing little breakfast we started, UNI
bopa, Khiva, and Ventvogel accompanying
us. The other Kafirs were left with the in
structions to skin the lion and the sable an
telope, and cut up the latter
We had no difficulty in finding the broad
elephant trail, which Fentvogel, after eX-
animation, pronounced to have been made
by between twenty and thirty elephants,
most of them full-grown bulls. But the
herd had moved OH some way during the
night, and it was nine o'clock, and already
very hot, before, from the broken trees,
bruised leaves and bark, and smoking dung,
we knew we could not be far off them.
Presently we caught sight of the herd,
numbering, as Fentvogel had said, between
twenty and thirty, standing in hollow,
having finished their morning meal, and
Tapping their great ears. 1t was splendid
sight.
They were about two hundred yards from
us. Taking handful of dry grass / threw
it into the air to see how the wind was; for
if once they winded us I knew they would
be off before we could get shot. Finding
that, if anything, it blew from the elephants
to us, we crept stealthily on, and, thanks to
the cover, managed to get within forty yards
or so of the great brutes. Just in front of
us and broadside on, stood three splendid
bulls one of them with enormous tusks.
whispered to the others that L would take
the middle one; Sir Henry covered the one
to the left, and Good the bull with the big
tuSks.
Now" / whispered.
Boom! boom! boom! went the three
/